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YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

engadget.com

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Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#291

Post by TheCapeGreek »

Personally, I found the homepage recommendations too sticky after pruning. I have other things to do than watch videos, but find it difficult to stop.

I've cut back to discovering content only via other sources (HN, other communities, friends) by blocking the homepage and sidebar recommendations entirely.

Plug this into your uBlock "My Filters" and YT should become far less addictive. It blocks both direct homepage access and SPA routing (on the latter the homepage will just be blank):

  ||youtube.com^|$doc
  youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="home"]

  ! 2022-02-07 https://www.youtube.com
  www.youtube.com##ytd-item-section-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#292

Post by john_alan »

qwertox wrote: post #263
daveoc64 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the dislike button seems to be that nobody agrees on what it should be used for. In previous HN discussions, it's become apparent that some people use it to say "I am not interested in this video". That is of zero use to other users. The video isn't necessarily bad, it's just on a topic you don't care about. If you are instead using it to mean "this video is factually wrong" or "this video is obnoxio…

Apparently you cared enough about it to start watching it after reading the title. A video with "Rust" and "Tokio" in the title will probably be unwatchable if it has a like to dislike ratio of 1 to 3, even if the title signals you that you want to see that video. But since there no longer exists this ratio, you'll have to watch it partially only to notice that it is bad. And then dislike it (and then have this disli…

No post body was provided.

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#293

Post by richrichardsson »

notahacker wrote: post #262
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar on Facebook: I click through to a scam product to gather details and send a complaint to ASA (in UK). I then say "don't show me stuff like this", block the "story", block the advertiser. Now consistently I get adverts from Facebook for that same product from other scammers, no matter how much I block them. Presumably because that advert 'engaged' me for the longest. Eugh. Incidentally, ASA responded that it w…

Facebook cares so little about scam content I'd regard them as actively complicit in the scams by this stage. Reported a scam as blatant as a Nigerian Prince (crypto product with "guaranteed income" of thousands per week which is "recommended by Martin Lewis" who actually took legal action against them over fake recommendations, according to a fake news website which rips off BBC News web design) to them and the feed…

I'm sure Facebook advertising is a waste of time now, it certainly is if anyone behaves the way I do on the platform:

• I've conceded that adverts are going to show up in my feed regardless and most advertisers can't be bothered to target properly so are mostly irrelevant

• I take great pleasure in "engaging" with the obvious scams and shitty crypto/NFT ads in the hope it's eating their ad budget

• this makes the adverts I see extremely irrelevant in a reinforced feedback loop

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#294

Post by esmon »

seb1204 wrote: post #230
daveoc64 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the dislike button seems to be that nobody agrees on what it should be used for. In previous HN discussions, it's become apparent that some people use it to say "I am not interested in this video". That is of zero use to other users. The video isn't necessarily bad, it's just on a topic you don't care about. If you are instead using it to mean "this video is factually wrong" or "this video is obnoxio…

Same arguments can be made for the like button. I do like it because, funny, informative, correct information etc. No use case defined = use as you see fit.

I see a future in which there are no likes and dislikes but sentiment is inferred and weighed according to its objective importance.

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#295

Post by krono »

everdrive wrote: post #82
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #32

The trick to improving YouTube recommendations is to regularly prune uninteresting videos and channels. Eventually this should start surfacing videos you're more likely to find interesting. I've actually hit the end of my recommendation stream on the mobile app after marking dozens of videos with Not Interested. Once this happens it starts recommending videos you've already watched or older videos from creators you'v…

>Some might say that you can still use search At some point Youtube search was neutered. I get 5-10 results for any given query before Youtube gives up and just offers me recommendations rather than search results. Interestingly, if I search google for [search term] site:youtube.com, I actually get pages of results which are never present in the Youtube search. Sadly, it seems that Google has intentionally diminished…

Here are some uBlock Origin rules to get rid of all that crap in your search results:

  youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-item-section-renderer>#contents>:not(ytd-video-renderer),ytd-secondary-search-container-renderer
  youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-video-renderer:has(.badge:has-text(/new/i))
  youtube.com##ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer ytd-compact-video-renderer:has(.badge:has-text(/new/i))

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#296

Post by danuker »

nounaut wrote: post #274
narrator wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yandex.com, my friend. It even returns results from Ulta Cancelled video websites like Bitchute, Rumble and Odyssey.

It looks like it's owned by a Russian company. Does that affect what it allows you to see? I notice for instance that a quick search for "War in Ukraine" returns top results from Russian news outlets calling it a "Military Operation".

Of course it affects what you see. Search engines are a form of soft power that states can't afford NOT to influence.

As a user of them, I make sure to use multiple engines (preferably with distinct indices and jurisdictions) when I research something essential that affects my long-term future. This is because I distrust how politics is done (industry lobbying).

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#297

Post by _def »

I recently watched a craft video of a guy that was a pretty egocentric douche, at one point he even mentioned how people get offended by him and dislike his videos (not only via the dislike button, but also that) and he mentioned that it doesn't matter. Apparently he was right.

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#298

Post by danuker »

esotericsean wrote: post #242
dijonman2 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better than bing image search, my current go to?

Someone uses Bing?

I also do. And Yandex, and sometimes Baidu. And when I'm particularly desperate, https://haveibeentrained.com/

Google is resting on its laurels - the perfect recipe for losing hegemony.

Re: YouTube’s ‘dislike’ barely works according to new study on recommendations

#300

Post by rasz »

brigandish wrote: post #180
everdrive wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Some might say that you can still use search At some point Youtube search was neutered. I get 5-10 results for any given query before Youtube gives up and just offers me recommendations rather than search results. Interestingly, if I search google for [search term] site:youtube.com, I actually get pages of results which are never present in the Youtube search. Sadly, it seems that Google has intentionally diminished…

Search is entirely crippled for new stories now. If I saw some breaking news on Twitter I used to pop over to Youtube to find original or better footage than news services were getting, or to get it faster. Impossible via YT's search now, it's just pages and pages of old-media channels with their thoughts on the footage, always clipped down and talked over. Even Twitter seems to do this now, it's becoming harder to f…

Afair this happened after New Zealand Christchurch shooting. YT was full of POV videos of mentally ill idiot going room to room killing people. As a quick fix/backlash the very next day YT search was totally broken and stayed that way.
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